BALTIMORE, MD—A Maryland settlement processor has pleaded guilty to making false statements to financial institutions in connection with real-estate settlements, authorities say.
Rebecca Marie Cohn, 38, of Fallston, worked as a settlement and title processor for Residential Title & Escrow Company in Owings Mills from 2013 to 2019. In her role, Cohn created, reviewed, and submitted HUD-1 Settlement Statements to financial institutions, and was responsible for documenting incoming funds and disbursements related to real-estate closings, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.
Cohn worked with co-defendants Mehul Ramesh Khatiwala, Rajendra G. Parikh, and Jennifer H. Watkins, who have already pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to obtain loan proceeds to buy and sell hotels in a “hotel-flipping” scheme. Cohn handled settlement transactions for the second part of the flip transaction, where Khatiwala, Parikh, and Watkins created limited liability companies to purchase hotel properties, then created a second company to purchase the hotels from the shell companies at substantially higher prices.
Between June 2019 and August 2019, Cohn knowingly participated in a fraudulent scheme involving the purchase and sale of hotels. She knowingly submitted false HUD-1 Settlement Statements and made false statements to financial institutions about buyers’ equity injections to secure loans for the transactions. In one instance, she submitted a materially false HUD-1 Settlement Statement in connection with an SBA guaranteed loan to North State Bank, substantially overrepresenting the deposit or earnest money that the borrowing entity actually used in the transaction.
Cohn faces up to 30 years in federal prison for lying to a financial institution. Sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge.
This article was written with the assistance of AI and reviewed by a human editor.
Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels
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